Occupied Palestinian Territory
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Israel: In a dark place
The 7th October 2023 punctured Israel’s belief in its inherent superiority. Disorientated, it knows only one mode of reaction: indiscriminate violence fuelled by a toxic fusion of fear and blood-lust revenge. And a belief that Palestinians and indeed Arabs – witness the Gaza-like decimation being visited upon Lebanon – are not fully human. And so Continue reading
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Project Israel: hegemony + elimination
The project to create an Israeli imperium over swathes of the Middle East is well under way. Hubris attends the project, as time will tell. Israel, led by a man, Netanyahu, with pronounced megalomaniacal tendencies, allied to maniacal, Jewish supremacist Knesset members and government ministers, knows no bounds in its pursuit of ‘security’ via domination. Continue reading
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It didn’t work first time, so we’ll do it again: Israel repeats itself in deadly ways
The Middle East is in a phase of radical uncertainty. Speculation is rife. Will Israel launch a ground offensive against Hezbollah? Will Hezbollah expand the scope and severity of its attacks on Israel? By the time you read this, the answers may be known. Or remain as uncertain as it is at the time of Continue reading
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From October, Israel will be able to kill vaccinated children
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, reports that hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s children – 90% coverage – have received the first of two required polio vaccinations. The second round should take place at the end of September. So, come, say October/November, Israel will find comfort in the knowledge that the Gazan children it will continue Continue reading
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Israel’s PR problem: Itself
The problem for proponents of Israel as a ‘normal’ state, is Israel itself. Over the past eleven months, Israel’s murderous, ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and now escalating in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, have been displayed on our screens for all to see. It is not a good look to destroy hospitals, kill and Continue reading
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Cry Justice! A trashed international rules-based system
If ever there were an international rules-based system, it is trashed now. Drained of authority and meaning, it is singularly unable to do what it is supposed to do. The Geneva Conventions, upon which the rule of law is supposedly based, their high-principled intent now made mockery. Even as their courts pass judgment on Israel’s Continue reading
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It’s Hezbollah. Or is it? Caution required
It hits you first: the grotesque hypocrisy of Prime Minister Netanyahu, responsible for the deaths and maiming of thousands of Palestinian children, expressing sympathy for the twelve Druze children killed at Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israel annexed Golan Heights. His heart, apparently, is broken. He emoted: Among the victims were young children Continue reading
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What we see should not be possible to do
You’ll have noticed. It’s slipping away. Barely a news item now. A brief clip of the devastation, then reversion to ‘informed’ interviews and comment. Will there, won’t there, be a ceasefire? Who rejects a ceasefire? Who accepts a ceasefire? Like a tennis match, back and forth, the ball soaked in blood and viscera, spraying the Continue reading
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Diaspora Jews and moral schizophrenia
It surely is paradoxical – ‘Paradox’ a person, thing, or situation that has two opposite features and therefore seems strange – that Jews in the UK live, prosper, and have the same civil, religious, and political rights as any other UK citizen. Yet, so many UK Jews support, often vehemently, a state – Israel – Continue reading
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Palestine and the strategic indifference of the West
We are witnessing a process of strategic indifference to the fate of the Palestinians, in Gaza, of course, but also not to be forgotten in the escalation of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. By strategic indifference, I mean that the USA, the UK and the West in general, have demonstrated, only Continue reading
About Me
This is Bernard Spiegal’s blog.
I write mainly about Palestine/Israel and related issues; sometimes other stuff too
Bernard Spiegal 